Overview
- The judge ordered the monument removed Tuesday, then stayed the order while the state appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
- Judge Kristine Baker ruled that the Ten Commandments Monument Display Act violates the Establishment Clause by conveying government favor for Christianity.
- Plaintiffs include an exercising group that passes the site on their routes, the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, The Satanic Temple, and a rabbi.
- The Legislature mandated the display in 2015, a first monument went up in 2017 and was destroyed by a car, and a replacement was installed in 2018 between the Capitol and the Arkansas Supreme Court building.
- The court distinguished Arkansas’s monument from older displays upheld elsewhere, noting it is new and was funded through a GoFundMe effort with major backing from a church and a Christian film studio.